“Oh, you stubborn old mule!” cried Norman.
“If you forgets yourself like that, Master Norman, and treats me disrespeckful, calling me a mule, I shall tell the captain.”
“No, don’t; I’m not disrespectful, Sam,” cried Norman, anxiously. “Look here, about the line: don’t you know that there’s a north pole and a south pole?”
“Yes, I’ve heard so, sir; and as Sir John Franklin went away from our parts to find it, but he didn’t find it, because of course it wasn’t there, and he lost hisself instead.”
“But, look here; right round the middle of the earth there’s a line.”
“Don’t believe it, sir. No line couldn’t ever be made big enough to go round the world; and if it could, there ain’t nowheres to fasten it to.”
“But I mean an imaginary line that divides the world into two equal parts.”
Sam German chuckled.
“’Maginary line, sir. Of course it is.”
“And this line—Oh, I can’t explain it, Rifle, can you?”